ORCID holds Board member elections every year, following an open recommendation and nominations process. ORCID Board members serve for three years; each year about a third of the Board seats are up for election. The Nominating Committee was chaired this year by Karin Wulf, a researcher member of the ORCID Board. The committee reviewed 25 applications.
The committee must balance a number of objectives when developing the slate. Their overarching aim is to recommend candidates who are driven by the ORCID mission and are able to contribute to ORCID’s development, through their personal and organizational knowledge and networks of influence. Diversity is also an important factor – in terms of skills, geographic location, organizational representation, and gender — and the committee must also ensure that the Board, as per our bylaws, remains majority non-profit.
The Nominating Committee’s slate of candidates was reviewed by the Board at its September 2018 meeting, announced in this blog post by Karin Wulf, and sent directly to ORCID members via our newsletter and an email to all voting contacts in member organizations.
This year, for the first time, we also held regional Town Hall meetings after the slate was announced for members in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa, to provide an overview of the process, share information about the slate, and answer questions.
Of the 832 members eligible to vote in the 2019 Board elections, 239 (28.7%) cast votes, above the 10% participation needed for the election to be valid. Of those members casting ballots, 226 (94.6%) voted in favor of the slate, 10 (4.2%) abstained, and three (1.3%) voted against the ballot. The election results were certified at 13:10 GMT on 7 December 2018.
On behalf of the Board and ORCID staff, our thanks to everyone who submitted nominations and participated in the elections process, especially the members of our Nominating Committee. Please join me in welcoming our new and returning Board members:
- Richard Ikeda (second term), National Institutes of Health, US
- Veronique Kiermer (second term), PLOS, US
- Robert Kiley (second term), Wellcome Trust, UK
- Shouguang Xie, Social Sciences Academic Press, China